From the global event industry's perspective, the past two years have been primarily about confronting your comfort zone and either taking some bold steps forward (if not leaps of imagination, in many cases) or staying behind (for a very long time). In practical terms, the latter alternative would often result in loosing many a long-cherished client. As early as March 2020, success and head-on readiness to explore the brave new world of online/hybrid event technologies became brothers and sisters, with sophisticated cost-awareness and logistics-optimisation skills only to follow shortly after.

The longer it took you to recalibrate your (organization's/agency's) mind to the new normal (i.e. new thinking/planning/strategizing around the hyper-dynamic market niche, emerging from the restrictions of 'the new normal') the more likely it is that much of your past use of the words 'innovations' or 'innovative' (with reference to your business/conference centre/event agency) may have been somewhat exaggerated. Trying to wait things out may be a good strategy in conflict resolution, but not where a burning need of the hour can be addressed with technological innovations already in existence.

Leaps of Imagination

It often takes years of step-by-step learning and lots of sophisticated event-production experience to become a reliably confident event manager, with a corresponding sense of control attached. In short, it can be a steep and painful learning curve for many, not to mention all the adrenaline and stress on the price tag. To cut the long story short, whether we liked it or not, much of 2020 was about nurturing a new-found readiness to start learning from scratch.  

Asking so many seasoned event managers to venture into a completely new, alien territory, dominated by a new language of interaction and behaviorual patterns was one thing, making your clients understand that there is unique value to be found in exploring the online world of creative opportunities (instead of going for an inferior alternative), was quite another. In the eyes of many, taking the online route seemed far from convincing, often pricey, risky and unpredictable in more ways than one.

As a result, the pandemic proved to be a powerful catalyst for the global event industry, broadening the pre-existing gap between conservative vs innovative event-market players. In the past, exploring new formats, forcing yourself into the technological terra incognita was pretty much an evolutionary choice. In March 2020, it became an inescapable necessity. While some companies were able to delay the impact (thanks to historical partnerships, size of operations and for a long list of other potential reasons), the basic facts of the new normal eventually dawned on everyone interested in survival, let alone growth.

The Market Reset

As the world went online in 2020, many were quick to spot some unique market-expansion opportunities attached to the many, long and unpredictable lists of country-level restrictions. If you were an experienced event emcee, a professional debate moderator or a cultural-event host, for example, traditional cost barriers suddenly disappeared for you, opening up a great new world of competitive opportunities. If, say, an event-, webinar- or conference organizer in Belgium needed an English-speaking host, they no longer had to pay for the flights and hotels ("Online is fine!") and therefore could afford an internationally experienced host, rather than having to rely on someone close by. By analogy, overnight, going international became much easier for conference hosts. Not only for hosts, but entire event agencies as well. International image- and reputation-building suddenly became a priority for many (as well as a new type of challenge, altogether).

One and the same participant, but two very different creatures

As thousands of event formats were learning to migrate online, many forgot to adjust the basic psychology and behavioural patterns accounting for the differences between a conference-centre participant and and in-front-of-the-screen participant. Again, to cut the long story short, an online conference participant is an entirely different creature from a conference participant in a physical auditoriom, even if they are one and the same person, ironically enough. The moment you enter the world of broadcasting online, you should spend time understanding how it is likely to affect your stage-layout optimisation, your transitions, event rhythm, dynamic and energy, your camera work, your storytelling tools, your feedback gathering and various measurement techniques. You may even need to opt for a very different host from the one who used to meet all of your 'good old world' criteria. 

Before choosing the right emcee

If you are an experienced event organizer, used to organizing multiple events, often all at the same time, the first thing worth considering might be to recommend to your clients that they commission a professional event audit, even if (or especially if) they think they already are very good at what they do. How will a conference audit help you, you might ask, especially if everyone seems to be telling you that your event format is beyond reproach (even if highly predictable)? 

To start with, it may tell you what your event organizer is not telling you (or, even, has been careful to hide from you). More importantly, perhaps, it will help you:

• explore new content development opportunities, 
• identify your key strategic bottlenecks, 
• understand operational weaknesses, 
• see where your image suffers and where it could be boosted without much (or any) extra cost. 

As you work on the 'next' edition of your conference, make sure you really understand and keep coming back to your WHY. Ask yourself: Why am I doing this conference in the first place...again? One should hope that motivations of event organizers, always and without exception, go beyond the meaning of the word enriching, in its literal sense, that is. And do coach your speakers! Make them feel ‘fresh’ and ‘tailored’ to your event goals and ambitions, even if they already are celebrities, with dozens of films and interviews available on YouTube.

There’s much more to it than meets the eye

While confidence is very important, there is a very fine line between confident and arrogant, pompous, fake, theatrical or inauthentic. I've hosted hundreds of conferences, both local/national and intercontinental over the years. Taking assignments as an international emcee is only one of the things I do professionally and yet there is a long list of reasons why I've never stopped loving it and have always found it engaging and informative. In short, why it never gets boring.

Conference emcees are natural risk managers, mediators, facilitators and aspiring storytellers. Even though the should always come prepared, the better they are at 'informed improvisation' the higher the probability your event will prove to be successful in ways you never saw coming. The job of a successful conference host is 'to bring it all together':

• build and strengthen the storytelling dimension of the event, give it a sense of consistency, even if (or especially if) what you sometimes see on the backstage side of things is frantic chaos
• anticipate and manage onstage (and offstage) risks
• come prepared for unpredictable scenarios (a contradiction in terms, I know)

On a purely mental/psychological level, I treat emceeing events as a privilege and a psychological reward with all of its networking, team spirit and cross-team collaboration. It's also a creative challenge, each and every time, and I feel instinctively grateful for each and every opportunity to learn something new from it.

Why it matters...a lot!

Over the years, I've also witnessed some events being derailed at the least expected moment, primarily because of the wrong choice of an MC or debate facilitator whose inexperience, incompetence, ego, ill-adjustment to the requirements of the role, or the level of stress in a highly stressful situation, resulted in multiple, deeply uncomfortable situations, often, for multiple stakeholders involved. 

Now, you might think much depends in this choice on the depth, ambitions and calibre of your event. The more superficial the role, the less analysis is needed before making it. And in most cases you would probably be right. If I were to give you my last word of advice on the subject, however, I would ask you to listen to this single conversation about this topic with Anna, Maciej and Damian, the hosts of Spark of Change, one of the best conferences about conferences out there, covering trends, innovations, engagement, content and technologies. By the wasy, the conference is free and it's starting TODAY, at 6 p.m. (CET)! :)